Taiwan said on Monday that China’s naval operation in waters east of the island democracy was “provocative” and “expansionism in disguise”.
Chinese ships are conducting a “law enforcement operation” in response to talks between Japan and the Philippines to establish a boundary in waters east of Taiwan, Chinese state media said on Saturday.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has called the talks “illegal” and has claimed exclusive control over the waters.
“It is nothing more than disguised expansionism that threatens regional peace and stability,” Taiwan’s National Security Council chief Joseph Wu wrote in X.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the Chinese actions were “provocative”.
Koo told reporters the move was a “cognitive warfare operation” designed to claim that waters off Taiwan’s east coast fell within China’s “enforcement jurisdiction.”
Taiwan’s coast guard has deployed seven patrol vessels to monitor Chinese vessels.
Taiwanese vessels chased four Chinese vessels from waters off the southernmost tip of the island on Sunday.
Since then, the ships have moved further east, Taiwan’s coast guard said Monday, after a blockade that lasted several hours.
